News

October 12, 2010

Our 2010 season of racing has come to an end. It’s at this time we like to recap the year, look at the highlights and the struggles, and process this information for the future.

Prior to the 2010 racing season we started with a strong conditioning camp in Noosa, Australia. Our time down-under is what gets us through the long solid year of racing and we look forward to getting back down there again towards the end of 2010.

We started the year of racing in Australia with reasonable results at the Sydney World Championship Series (WCS) event, Greg 7th and Laura 14th. Although we expect more from ourselves it was great to get a race under the belt. We love this event and both of us aim to find another gear at the 2011 event. We got a little more at our next event in St. Petersburg Florida – St.Anthony’s (SA) Triathlon, Greg 2nd and Laura 5th.

We have both been to different Olympics for different countries and both finished 4th. We have discussed for a long time about both going to London Olympics together on the same team as a huge goal. This year we decided it was time to make the first step a reality. Greg asked for a release from Australia to race for the USA and it was given. In April 2011, the process of racing as a USA athlete will be complete. We will both be racing on the one team, for the USA.

For Laura, 2010 was the year to just get out there and get racing. Laura had had 18 months of limited racing in 2008 and 2009 with injury so now she needed to throw herself into the mix. She did this with tremendous success. Finishing 6th at the lucrative Hyvee World Cup, 7th at Hamburg WCS, 5th at London WCS, 8th at Kitzbuhel WCS and 8th at the Grand Final in Budapest. These results gave her a 10th on the overall standings for the World Championship Series and more importantly a great stepping-stone for 2011 and 2012. She also won the ITU Best Swimmer Rankings to boot. The year was not over although mentally the thought of more racing was difficult to comprehend. Laura continued to race with success and won another National title in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and two podium finishes at the LA Triathlon and the US Open Triathlon in Dallas, Texas.

For Greg, 2010 was shaping up to be a very strong season. Pre-season events in Sydney and St. Anthony’s and strong running race results indicated his shape to be on par with 2003 (World series champion) and 2007 (USA’s Grand Slam Champion). But Greg was hit with debilitating allergies at the end of May. The immune system shut down, and for 8 weeks Greg caught every illness around. Trying to train and even compete was useless and by the end of July it was time to just stop everything for a few weeks. Greg joined Laura in Europe for 5 weeks (mid Aug- mid Sep) and even competed with limited success due to now a lack of fitness. By the WCS Grand Final in Budapest, Greg was starting to find some mediocre fitness and finished 14th. Returning to the States, Greg also raced in LA and Dallas finishing 4th in both events.
Now on break, we have time to catch up on our house chores, connect with our sponsors, study our past year and plan our future. Oh, and of course take some down time for ourselves.

We have to thank our sponsors once again for all the support and belief in us both:- Champion System apparel, Oakley, H20 Audio, Zipp wheels, Normatec, GB- Orbea, Fizik, Blue Seventy, LB – Jamis, Athlete Honey Milk, Aquaman, ISM. We must send a special thanks to Triathlon Australia for giving Greg the release. We understand this was not an easy decision for them but their sensitivity to our request was truly appreciated. We also must thank USA Triathlon for their help in making this process possible.

The future is exciting. Both of us have our eyes fixed on the 2012 Olympic Games. Our plan is in place and it’s going to be one hell of a journey!

May 8 - 2010

Finally Boulder weather is starting to show glimpses of Summer. Since arriving back into the States 4 weeks ago we have seen beautiful spring days followed by heavy wet snow and gail force winds. We haven't got out onto the roads on our bikes as much as we would like but fortunately neither of us mind the indoor trainers. We are now starting to find our routine again and are feeling pretty much 100% adjusted to the altitude... maybe 2 more weeks and it will be more dialed in.

Preseason was successful on many levels. Laura had some tough battles in Mooloolaba WC, Sydney WCS and St.Anthonys. Some incredibly hard training in March left her a little flat for all three of these events but she got what she needed out of them. Her bikes are dialed in nicely now and we have a better understanding of what she needs for the main season starting out in June. Greg had a couple of reasonably good results with a 7th in Sydney WCS and a 2nd in St. Anthonys. Although the 2nd looks nice on paper it was not a pleasing performance.... it was a struggle from start to finish and the body just felt flat.

Next up is some more solid training, perhaps a running race or two and then the big prize money race the Hyvee World Cup to kick start the 2010 season proper.

April 6 -2010

The long conditioning camp in Noosa, Australia is coming to an end. We're both excited to finally be getting back into some racing.

The conditioning camp has been very successful. Both of us have increased our training steadily over the last 12 weeks without incident. We have had some great training partners for different weeks throughout this phase including Mathias Hecht (SUI), Nicole Hofer (SUI), Belinda and Justin Granger (AUS), Eric Bell (USA), Jenny Fletcher (CAN), Luke McKenzie (AUS), Javier Gomez (ESP), Ricarda Lisk (GER), Andrew Johns (AJ), Marc Widmer (SUI), and Neil Larkin. Our recovery has been the best ever with the use of our Normatec MVP compression boots, ICool Ice bath and TP massage rollers.

Now we start our year of racing. Laura will race this weekend at the Mooloolaba World Cup event. We will both then race the Sydney World Championship race in two weeks time (Apr 11). Following Sydney we will travel back to our North American base in Boulder and set up shop for the remainder of the very exciting schedule ahead. First race back in the States will be one of our favorite events, the St.Anthonys Triathlon on April 25.

This year we have both signed with some fantastic new sponsors. We will both continue with our major sponsor Champion System clothing. We are also pleased to continue our work with Oakley, H2o Audio underwater headphones, and Normatec MVP. We have a new wheel sponsor for both of us with Zipp wheels.

Laura has changed her bike sponsor and will now ride for Jamis bikes. Greg will continue with Orbea bikes in what has been a very successful last 5 years. Laura will continue riding ISM saddles and Greg Fizik Saddles.

We have plenty of racing this year and we are both in great shape. Looking forward to seeing all of you at the races!